Profiles

Our principals, Terry Socol and Gene Topper have a total of over 40 years’ experience in market research. SRP is committed to a “hands-on” approach of helping companies solve problems with actionable information that includes marketing implications and next steps. By collaborating directly with senior client management, SRP principals personally focus on everything from client study details to broad strategic initiatives without the conventional delegation of project work to less seasoned professionals.

SRP is a full service research company that develops research customized to the needs of our clients. Our principals are highly credentialed experts with a finely tuned strategic approach to solving client challenges.

 

Terry Socol

Terry has over 20 years’ experience in the research industry on the corporate, advertising agency and supplier sides of the business. An accomplished marketing professional, Terry can translate research into effective marketing strategy. He is experienced in all facets of quantitative and qualitative research across a broad range of consumer and business-to-business industries. Additionally, Terry has directed the market sciences operation for a major market research supplier.

With background in corporate management, advertising, and consulting, Terry has worked with hundreds of product/service categories, including Fortune 500 companies operating in the B2B and consumer marketplace that include banks, insurance companies, telecommunications, travel and packaged goods companies.

Terry has successfully supported the launch of many new products. He has conducted extensive studies to screen early concepts, optimize features, and to guide later stage product development.

With an MBA in Marketing Research from DePaul University and an MS in Marketing and Management from the University of Illinois, Terry understands both the technical demands of research as well as the practical realities companies face in the marketplace.

Selected clients of Terry Socol:

• Financial services organizations such as GE Consumer Finance, Allstate, PNC Bank, Bank One, Affinion/Progeny

• Telecom & Technology firms like AT&T/SBC, America Online Sprint PCS 

• Travel includes United Airlines

• Pharmaceutical manufacturers including Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb

• Retailers such as Sears, Kash’n Karry, Giant Eagle

• Packaged Goods companies including SC Johnson, Kraft, ConAgra Foods, Nestle and Unilever

• Restaurants like McDonald’s, Bob Evans

Terry has held significant senior posts on the client, advertising agency, and market research provider sectors:

• Associate Director Strategic Research at SBC 

• Assistant Vice President at First USA/First Card

• Research Manager at Impact Communications-Foote, Cone & Belding 

• Research Director/Senior Consultant/Senior Analyst/Analyst at M/A/R/C

Contact Terry at tsocol@strategicresearchpartners.com

  

Gene Topper, PhD

Gene has over 25 years’ experience in the marketing research industry. The first fifteen of these years were spent in senior advertising research management positions with leading Chicago-area advertising agencies. For the last ten years, Gene has focused on the research supplier side where he has been responsible for new business development and team leadership on a variety of consumer and B2B client accounts. His experience includes all forms of qualitative and quantitative methods from new product development through communications strategy development and tracking.

After receiving both his PhD and MA in experimental psychology from Loyola University of Chicago, Gene went on to earn an MBA in marketing management from that same institution. Thus, he understands both experimentation and commerce, and how to put the former in the service of the latter. His BA in psychology is from Northwestern University.

Gene’s client experience covers a wide-range of assignments:

• Telecommunications organizations such as AT&T/SBC, Verizon, Sprint-Nextel

• Packaged goods firms including Corona Extra, NutraSweet/Equal, Kitty Litter, Red Star Yeast, Wilson Foods, Nalley’s Pickles

• Financial Services companies like Allstate, Cole Taylor Bank, First USA

• Foodservice suppliers including Quaker Oats, Sweetheart Cup, American Egg Board, National Pork Producers Council

• Retailers such as Kroger, Sears, SupeRx, Cub, Pic 'n Save, Kash 'n Karry, Bob Evans Restaurants, Eyemasters

• Durables companies like Masonite, Carrier, Whirlpool, Airoom

• Healthcare/Optical care including Vistakon (J&J), Transitions Lenses, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

Contact Gene at gtopper@strategicresearchpartners.com